Future of QF27/28 travel post covid

[baarg]

Thank you...and...I posted on Qantas Facebook page , asking for answers after explaining my situation and asking why they happily take money from so many people knowing that they will cancel they flights and their dreams of seeing family and friends. ..and what are they waiting for before telling us...In the end I said "it almost seems as scam" An obviously they took my post off together with the ones that I showed you before where someone is saying that her flight to Chile were already cancelled. This is really awful ...

I shouldn't be surprised at this stage. I can still see my post, but yes, they obviously take loads down. Yet, I still can't believe we are the only few people concerned about and aware of the dissapearing flights?!

 

[casey Hart]

I have a tale to tell!
We booked with Qantas on 7 December 2021 flights leaving on 15 February 2022 - Sydney - Dallas and connecting to Buenos Aries to join a crusie to Antartica. The route home was leaving 4 March 2022 - Buenos Aries - Santiago and then Sydney. We booked business class and were told that we had one leg in economy (Dallas to BA) as that was all that was available - we accepted this, but this is when the issues started.
On 12 December, we received a notice that our flight from Sydney had changed and we were now leaving Sydney a day later which would have had us arriving in BA the day our cruise was departing. After hours on the phone with Qantas, we ended up Sydney - LA - Miami - BA - a cool 12 hours more travelling time and now the LA - Miami - BA legs were all in economy.

On 8 February, we received a message to say our flights home had been cancelled - just like that!
Again after hours and hours on the phone, we were re-routed, BA - Miami - Dallas, leaving BA a day earlier on 3 Match 2021. Our flights were again economy class BA - Miami - Dallas. Dallas to Sydney business and travel time up from 25 hours to over 40 hours.
We travelled with friends who booked the exact itinerary and they paid $1,000 more for their tickets and were in business 100% (I gave them a copy of our flight details and they booked same flights) I actually called Qantas to point this out and ask them to review - we were told that needed to pay an additional $6,000 to be in business all the way - total costs would have been $24,000 as we had paid $18,300, but were now doing most of our travel in economy class. Qantas stated because we originally had a leg economy, they couldn't do anything.
Our ticket was code share with American airlines and although they understood the problem they were unable to make any changes to our ticket as it was issued by Qantas.
To add, when we arrived in LA we were told we were not confirmed on the flight from Miami to BA and the flight was full! Luckily, I found a very helpful person who managed to get us seats on the flight (at the departure gate there were loads of people waiting for no shows so we were very lucky!)

To sum up:
1. we paid for business travel but did more than 50% in economy
2. If I was not a qantas club member we would ahve been denied lounge access for the extended wait times
3. Our companions travelled in Business class while we were in economy for most of the travel
4. Our Qantas booking number did not work on the American airlines sytem so we were unable to select seats in advance and my husband and I did not sit together on some legs - our seats were always right down the back of the airplane.
5. If Qantas had been honest at the time of booking we would have considered our options and either purchased a ticket directly with American Airlines (at least we would have been able to get assistance) or another airline.
Our travel was to celebrate my husband's 60th birthday but the flight experience was nothing to celebrate!
I provided feedback to Qantas prior to leaving Australia mid February and have not yet recieved a response.
I am very disappointed to say the least, particularly after reading this article and realising that other travellers may be still having this same extremly poor and difficult experience.


(sorry for typos!)

 

[Sylvana]

What a horrible experience. I can't believe that Qantas has become such a bad airline with such a bad customer service. A few of us here are just waiting with very little or no hope for a good outcome, very disappointed.
Thank you for sharing..

 

[baarg]

I have just received a cancellation, only for one leg WTF (can we say that?). I am about to ring them as my return flight is still there. No explanation, no "this is your option". NOTHING! Watch this space!

 

[Sylvana]

I have just received a cancellation, only for one leg WTF (can we say that?). I am about to ring them as my return flight is still there. No explanation, no "this is your option". NOTHING! Watch this space!

OMG! I am so sorry, yeah WTF alright , I feel for you, and definitely I will prepare myself for my cancellation...I still cannot believe this is happening, and that we didn't know any of this dodgy business before making plans and spending so much money...we just fell for it.
Good luck trying to contact somebody that will give you an honest answer, don't give up.

 

[baarg]

I am still on hold of course - now get this, while waiting and checking the mess of my booking, I receive another "change". So, I don't have a ticket to Bs As on the 30th of March, but I have a return flight which they have changed: my return flight to Santiago is on 13.04, same as before, but the flight from Santiago to Sydney is on the 12th!!!!! So I not only have to make my own way there somehow, but I have to travel back in time as well!!!! And with Latam, with an Auckland stopover!
What the F$?# are they doing? If they are planning to change the whole thing, they should do the WHOLE thing, ask if that is OK with me and then confirm, not bits and pieces.
I don't even know what to do if by any chance they offer me to travel with Latam, because this experience has been extremely stressful and disapointing and I just don't want any more dramas and a reason for Qantas to continue to hold my money or to then have the experiences that Casey outlined above.

 

[Sylvana]

ohh God....and guess what...
Just received a phone call from my travel agent....of course my flight has been cancelled! She doesn't know when they will have any other flight, she will try to apply for a refund from Qantas and regarding my Travel insurance I can only get a partial refund because I am out of the cooling off period..can you believe all this?....so upset

 

[baarg]

Horrible, Horrible experience. I haven't gotten through yet. I want a refund. I don't trust airlines. I will book once the planes are flying.

 

[gveitmic]

Baarg and Sylvana, hope you get a full refund quickly, this is totally unacceptable.

They just swapped our outbound flight in mid Oct from QF27 to QF3877 (LA800). This adds an extra stop in Auckland so we now have 5 flights until reaching the final destination (w/ a 2 year old!).

At least they kept us on the 787 flights and did not put us on the A321 ones without business class (SCL -> GRU).

The inbound flight still shows on QF28, but its early Nov so hopefully will stay like that.

 

[baarg]

I am giving updates because I noticed that many times people ask questions in forums (e.g. health related, travel, etc.) and the answer/resolution would be helpful but the posters then disappear and it would have been good to know what happened in the end.
Totally unacceptable and they should be held accountable for the stress they're causing us and expenses they're subjecting us to. As I said I made a complaint to the ACCC about a week ago or so. I just got off the phone with Qantas, waited for almost 3 and a half hours to speak to someone. The only things they could sort of offer were going through LA, etc. so I refused and they said they'd refund me. Apparently it will take 6 to 7 weeks. I know this could take even longer, so I requested they expedite my refund so I can use the money. And I hope I get it back. This money should have never been taken from my credit card in the first place because Qantas never had any intention to travel to South America. Or at least, they should have had cancelled straight away. It is apparent that they've done this as a money grab. I have no trust in Qantas.
Funny thing is that I had to cancel two flights to NZ with Jetstar last year, one was actually cancelled and the other I cancelled myself cos the borders wouldn't open and the two times I had no dramas getting my points back (first trip) and my money back on the second. Also, I called them and their waiting times are nowhere near as long.
I'll keep you posted on how I go with the refund.

 

[gveitmic]

Oh well, looks like Qantas switched us from QF27 to LA800 and reserved seats that don't even exist on that plane. Brilliant. Now I need to figure out how to select seats on LATAM flights booked through Qantas, the reservation code does not work on their website....

 

[Sylvana]

Let us know how you are going...I know how you are feeling..good luck

Baarg and Sylvana, hope you get a full refund quickly, this is totally unacceptable.

They just swapped our outbound flight in mid Oct from QF27 to QF3877 (LA800). This adds an extra stop in Auckland so we now have 5 flights until reaching the final destination (w/ a 2 year old!).

At least they kept us on the 787 flights and did not put us on the A321 ones without business class (SCL -> GRU).

The inbound flight still shows on QF28, but its early Nov so hopefully will stay like that.

So ...if they change your flights to Latam for mid October , it means Qantas won't start on those dates as they say..What a mess, and if they won't fly that way definitely they will change your flight back as well. Unless you'll take a plane stopping over in Chile from LA?

 

[Sylvana]

I am giving updates because I noticed that many times people ask questions in forums (e.g. health related, travel, etc.) and the answer/resolution would be helpful but the posters then disappear and it would have been good to know what happened in the end.
Totally unacceptable and they should be held accountable for the stress they're causing us and expenses they're subjecting us to. As I said I made a complaint to the ACCC about a week ago or so. I just got off the phone with Qantas, waited for almost 3 and a half hours to speak to someone. The only things they could sort of offer were going through LA, etc. so I refused and they said they'd refund me. Apparently it will take 6 to 7 weeks. I know this could take even longer, so I requested they expedite my refund so I can use the money. And I hope I get it back. This money should have never been taken from my credit card in the first place because Qantas never had any intention to travel to South America. Or at least, they should have had cancelled straight away. It is apparent that they've done this as a money grab. I have no trust in Qantas.
Funny thing is that I had to cancel two flights to NZ with Jetstar last year, one was actually cancelled and the other I cancelled myself cos the borders wouldn't open and the two times I had no dramas getting my points back (first trip) and my money back on the second. Also, I called them and their waiting times are nowhere near as long.
I'll keep you posted on how I go with the refund.

My travel agent will file the application for refund...who knows how long will take..

 

[gveitmic]

Let us know how you are going...I know how you are feeling..good luck

So ...if they change your flights to Latam for mid October , it means Qantas won't start on those dates as they say..What a mess, and if they won't fly that way definitely they will change your flight back as well. Unless you'll take a plane stopping over in Chile from LA?

Yes, I guess it means they have no plans to start flying to SCL before November. My return ticket is still being sold on the Qantas website (QF28). Wondering if that's just a money grab too or they plan to actually have those flights...

Good luck with your refund!

 

[baarg]

Personally, and this is only me, I would ask for a refund based on the fact that the flights are not what was promised and the alternative is not suitable. In my opinion, they are not reliable enough to me that I trust them as a company. Best to fly reliably. Perhaps Latam would be an option once they start flying and we see how those flights go. That's just my point of view after this whole mess anyway.

Post automatically merged: Mar 8, 2022

My travel agent will file the application for refund...who knows how long will take..

Good luck!!!! I hope we can travel soon. With the situation in Europe you'd think they'd be demand for South America!

 

[justin23]

This adds an extra stop in Auckland

This will literally be a very short layover, i know its inconvenient for some, for others its a chance to stretch legs etc. Its all on the same plane. The Latam flight is also IMO a much better timed flight. The QF flight had worse arrival times IMO.

Horrible, Horrible experience. I haven't gotten through yet. I want a refund. I don't trust airlines. I will book once the planes are flying.

I feel for your experience. Airlines are really struggling right now. They are losing money hand over fist and can't provide the service customers need. I originally thought the media saying 2023 before things return to normal was just fearmongering, but it looks like it may take most of this year for things to get somewhat normal and thats assuming there are no mopre curveballs.

That said if anyone wants to go to South America, I'd be booking it through Qantas even though it will be on Latam flights, rather than directly through Latam. Thats what I did for October/November this year for an antarctica trip.

 

[Jacques Vert]

This will literally be a very short layover, i know its inconvenient for some, for others its a chance to stretch legs etc. Its all on the same plane.

Not necessarily the same plane; last time I flew this route (in reverse: SCL-AKL-SYD) aircraft was a 789 to AKL and a 788 AKL-SYD. Had to collect all our cabin stuff and walk to a different gate.

 

[Mattg]

Not necessarily the same plane; last time I flew this route (in reverse: SCL-AKL-SYD) aircraft was a 789 to AKL and a 788 AKL-SYD. Had to collect all our cabin stuff and walk to a different gate.

Interesting. This is not what usually happens, but I have seen similar occasionally during irrops.

Given LATAM is now only running SCL-AKL-SYD 3x weekly, it will be the same plane all the way through for the foreseeable future.

 

[justinbrett]

Not necessarily the same plane; last time I flew this route (in reverse: SCL-AKL-SYD) aircraft was a 789 to AKL and a 788 AKL-SYD. Had to collect all our cabin stuff and walk to a different gate.

You always have to collect your cabin luggage on these kinds of flights even if remaining on the plane.

 

[Scarlett]

Baarg and Sylvana, hope you get a full refund quickly, this is totally unacceptable.

They just swapped our outbound flight in mid Oct from QF27 to QF3877 (LA800). This adds an extra stop in Auckland so we now have 5 flights until reaching the final destination (w/ a 2 year old!).

At least they kept us on the 787 flights and did not put us on the A321 ones without business class (SCL -> GRU).

The inbound flight still shows on QF28, but its early Nov so hopefully will stay like that.

@gveitmic Has your child done much flying previously? If not, don’t expect the worst!
We took Mstr Scarlett on a two month round the world trip when he was 18 months old (18 flights total) and he did it without a hassle.

Sounds like you might need good luck just to even get onto the flights in the first place!